Friday, November 7, 2008

This is Pillsbury's first big brand campaign since 2001. The obvious triple shoe tap is from The Wizard of Oz. I wonder if they had to get permission, since they never exactly referred to the film directly, but they definitely used the idea.

If you go to the Pillsbury website, you can see that they are donating money to Feeding America every time the video is sent through e-mail, so you might want to check that out.

This commercial is really simple. Take a person, put them in an unfamiliar or stressful environment, make them wish they were home. While it's a good idea, I think the minute-long ad is a little much. After the first few shoe taps it just gets repetitive. Anyway, Pillsbury's soft sell approach should capture the attention of comfort seekers who need some relief from these tough economic times. We're going to be seeing a lot of emotional ads during the holiday season this year.